best way to splice starter bundle wire?

[Gary S.]

After helping my friend put his rebuilt starter in, 1967 BB, we took it for a shake down cruise through the neighborhood. As soon as the exhaust got hot enough, it burned through the wire bundle going to the starter and everything died immediately. I examined it underneath and noticed the burned through bundle and I would like to know the best way to correct this. I am thinking getting some of the various gauge butt connectors, cutting the offending section out, about 1/4", to get to clean wire and then reconnecting the wires through butt connectors. I assume that is the proper name for the straight cylindrical connectors that you push the stripped end of the wire into and then crimp. Or is there a better way? Fortunately there is a bend in the wiring bundle that is at least 5" excess so I have enough wire to repair this.

Thank you as always.

Gary

[Keith B.]

Re: best way to splice starter bundle wire?

heat shrink with butt connectors. and you can solder them to make them better they make different color heat shrink tubing as well. and then route the wires correctly in solenoid clip

[Larry M.]

Re: best way to splice starter bundle wire?

1967 model has 2 fusible links in this area, as well as other wires.

I would disconnect all at the starter, and pull the entire bundle up on the (padded) passenger fender for doing the repairs. I would solder butt connectors on the regular wires and then cover with two layers of black heat shrink.

You can easily buy fusible link wire.......although the colors may be off from original. GM/Delco original orange (20 gage) and brown (14 gage) fusible link wire can be found, but it is difficult to do so. Use butt connectors and 2x heat shrink for the fusible links as well. The other ends of the wires should be round metal terminals that connect to the starter/solenoid, etc. Solder the terminals also and 2x the heat shrink.

Larry

[Gary S.]

Re: best way to splice starter bundle wire?

Thank you both. Now I have to learn "fusible links" before beginning. Once I pull the starter out and the wiring, will the fusible link be obvious?From a search here, the fusible link wire is usually 2 gauges smaller than the wire it is spliced in to. Other that size difference, is there anything obvious? Most of my searches here turn up outdated links to photos no longer available. The local auto parts house has fusible links so this should be a problem since I doubt he will ever judge this car.

I should have known better about the solenoid clip but his car doesn't have one. We will fix that too.

Thank you all,
Gary

[Larry M.]

Re: best way to splice starter bundle wire?

Fusible links have a wire insulation that will not burn/ignite........in addition to being smaller gage (by 2 typical gages) than the adjacent wiring. In other words, the 10 gage red wire would require a 14 gage fusible link.....and the 16 gage black wire will require a 20 gage fusible link. When the fusible link is joined into the regular wire by the factory, there is a small rubber-like cylinder cover over this joined connection. Using a butt connector with 2x heat shrink will (sort of) duplicate this look at the junction points.

I have replaced many fusible links..........no special problems. Trying to get the correct and obsolete GM wiring is the main issue. But for function, the wire color does not matter.

For non-fusible link wires, replace with the same gage wire. Again, I prefer and recommend soldering the wires. You might even use white covered wire and spray paint the correct color over the white.

Larry

[Leif A.]

Re: best way to splice starter bundle wire?

Gary,
Here is a picture of the fusible links at the starter. They're quite recognizable...the extra large black areas in the middle of the wires. If you burned the wires and not the fusible links, you can re-use the fusible links that are already in place. Hope this helps.

[Gary S.]

Re: best way to splice starter bundle wire?

Leif,
Perfect. That is exactly what I was looking for. Not having previously looked at or for them, I didn't know what they looked like. Tomorrow the starter will be dropped, the wires pulled off and then I will use Larry's suggestion of bringing the wires up. The wire bundle is burned through several inches from the end where the wires connect to the solenoid so I am hoping that the link is intact.

Larry,
Good suggestions and thank you for clarifying what the black "cylinder" is for. I saw that in Leif's photo.

Gary

[Gary S.]

Re: best way to splice starter bundle wire?

Larry, let me ask a follow on question. In the event that the FL is toast and the owner chooses to use a store bought non-GM link, do you just cut the clip of loop off, clip the FL wire to the appropriate length and then splice it in using the mentioned techniques? This seems like the obvious way due to the store bought construction with a metal loop on one end and an open wire on the other.

Gary

[Larry M.]

Re: best way to splice starter bundle wire?

Larry, let me ask a follow on question. In the event that the FL is toast and the owner chooses to use a store bought non-GM link, do you just cut the clip of loop off, clip the FL wire to the appropriate length and then splice it in using the mentioned techniques? This seems like the obvious way due to the store bought construction with a metal loop on one end and an open wire on the other.

Gary

Gary:

What you state will work just fine, since the fusible link is in reality just a (special insulation) wire. But if the end terminal can be made to work, and the replacement fusible link wire is the correct length (+/- a few inches) then you can only make one splice and use the supplied end terminal.

My FL wire is simply in a small roll with no end fittings, so it requires (for me) two connections regardless. But if you can buy a FL with one end already in place, that is even better.

It seems current FL wire is color coded to a specific modern code, so the various gages are a standardized color. But back "in the day" GM had their own color code, which was different. Hence the difficulty in finding the old GM wire. I lucked out many years ago and found an old "Carb and Ignition" shop in South Chicago that was closing. They had huge 500-1000 ft rolls of this GM FL wire in all gages. I just needed a little bit of the orange wire and only bought a few feet. In hindsight, I should have bought a lot more of the various colors.

Larry

[James G.]

Re: best way to splice starter bundle wire?

I bought a roll of brown 14 ga and orange 20 ga GM fusible link wire off ebay earlier this year. I have kept an eye on it, it shows up regularly in spools and all the time by the foot on ebay.

[Larry M.]

Re: best way to splice starter bundle wire?

Gary:

You stated that the 67 car owner was not interested in NCRS judging. So fusible link configuration and wire color is not extremely important. But with a sharp razor blade and some black silicone rubber sealant, you can probably "re-use" the original factory black cylindrical splice covers. I thought about doing this for my own car, but decided it was not worth the effort. You likely feel the same. But I will toss it out there as something that can be done if you really really want to.

Larry

[Gary S.]

Re: best way to splice starter bundle wire?

I would disconnect all at the starter, and pull the entire bundle up on the (padded) passenger fender for doing the repairs. I would solder butt connectors on the regular wires and then cover with two layers of black heat shrink.

Larry

Using this technique of pulling the wires up we were able to solder and butt connect the large (6 gauge maybe) red wire. It was relatively easy to do standing up soldering. I was surprised at how much wire was available once the firewall clips were opened slightly and the wire pulled up.

No other wiring issues at all. Thank you all

Gary

[Larry M.]

Re: best way to splice starter bundle wire?

Using this technique of pulling the wires up we were able to solder and butt connect the large (6 gauge maybe) red wire. It was relatively easy to do standing up soldering. I was surprised at how much wire was available once the firewall clips were opened slightly and the wire pulled up.

No other wiring issues at all. Thank you all


Gary

Good to hear.............

Red wire should be 10 gage.

Larry